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Sibling rivalry in the mayor’s office: Rob and Doug Ford's relationship close but fraught

The brothers have had physical fights in the mayor's office and went weeks without speaking, according to a source familiar with the relationship.

Competitiveness between the Ford brothers came to a public head during their Cut the Waist challenge, seen here at a weigh-in in January 2012 with John Tory as the announcer. Doug publicly mocked Rob for cancelling subsequent weigh-ins, indulging in fast food and failing to match his own weight-loss success - until the competition, conceived as an inspirational fundraiser, came to a sudden end when Rob Ford fell off the scale onto Doug and twisted his ankle. (CARLOS OSORIO / TORONTO STAR)

They share a nickname (“Jones”), not to mention a last name, and interact publicly with a jocular, brotherly warmth. When scandal threatened to devastate their family, they stood together.

But privately, Rob and Doug Ford have a tense and sometimes distant relationship that frequently erupts in angry shouting matches and even physical altercations, sources say.

Now, as Rob lies in hospital with an abdominal tumour and Doug takes his place on the mayoral ballot, their complicated filial dynamic has taken on renewed relevance for a city held in thrall by the Ford saga.

“It’s a love-hate type relationship,” said one City Hall staffer, who remembers visiting the office of Mark Towhey, Rob Ford’s former policy director and then chief-of-staff, and hearing Rob and Doug screaming at each other in the background. “Mark didn’t even flinch. He was used to it. It was loud … But for everyone in the office, it was business as usual.”

(Towhey, who is writing a book about his time working for the mayor, could not be reached for comment.)

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The brothers sometimes go weeks without talking, said another person familiar with the Ford relationship.

It’s a classic sibling rivalry, the person said, fuelled by high-stakes power politics: despite being mayor, Rob continues to feel overshadowed by his older brother, long the family’s golden boy and president of the family label business.

“Rob’s always resented Doug’s success,” said the source.

The tension sometimes explodes in physical confrontations, they said: shoving and occasional punching, sometimes in the mayor’s office at City Hall.

A senior Conservative insider said Friday there has long been “a struggle within the family” between Doug and Rob over who should be mayor.

That tug-of-war even predates the mayor’s crack cocaine scandal, first revealed by the Star in May 2013 — let alone his latest health scare.

Another Conservative stalwart who knows both brothers well said it was noteworthy how competitive they were during their “Cut the Waist” weight-loss challenge a few years ago and how publicly mean-spirited Doug was toward Rob when the mayor failed to lose much weight.

“Sometimes with Rob you get the impression that‎ main reason he liked being mayor was that his brother wasn’t the mayor,” said the second PC source.

Any bad blood between the two is tempered, in part, by a cagey mutual admiration, with both recognizing the other’s political gifts. In a recent interview with the Star, Doug praised his younger brother’s occasionally mystifying populist appeal.

“He’s such an interesting guy,” Ford said. “I can’t figure him out some days, and he’s my brother. I find him interesting as a study. I always say, ‘If I could get into that brain of yours and figure out what’s going on …’”

Rob, meanwhile, seems in awe of his big brother, no matter how oppressive he may find him. “He’s 10 times smarter than anyone I’ve ever met,” Rob said on AM640’s John Oakley Show in 2013. “And no matter again how the media wants to spin it, Doug is the hardest working, smartest guy. He builds a multimillion-dollar company by himself down in Chicago, creating jobs. And it’s not Daddy. He did it on his own.”

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